Spring Sprung Sproing

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz.
I wonder where the birdies is?

Spring has arrived in this Great White North, and it's been rather a noticable change. Gone are the banks of endless white, replaced by shy buds of greenery. There is, contrary to popular outside-of-Canada belief, sunshine. Ooooh.

The difference in the seasons here is a bit of a shock to someone who is used to the Victorian climate. We fool ourselves into believing that we have four seasons, but according to our stereotype Melbournians have to carry umbrellas and coats with us on even the brightest of sunny days as those changes happen within an hour or two.

Here the seasons are quite distinct from each other, and it's fun to actually see it as we move from one to another. Victoria in comparison really only has two seasons - "Hot and Dry" or "Cold and Wet", without the (cold) extremes that happen here.

I keep getting told about how Canadians have coats for everything, and it's true. Winter coats, Fall coats, Rain coats, Spring coats. I'm sure there's a Summer coat in there as well. That being said, the moment there's even a touch of warmer weather, all coats are off and out come the lighter clothes. Weather that would make the average Victorian shiver and reach for the heater has many Canadians out and about in T-shirts and shorts. People are even barbequing in the rain.

One of the things I have discovered since being here is that zero degrees Celcius really isn't as cold as you think when you're coming back up from the deep minuses. One looks forward to it through the depths of a white winter, and even starts refering to it as a "heat wave" when it happens with tongue only partially in cheek. When zero is only the halfway point on the great journey of the seasons, it's bloody cold going down, but nice and warm coming back up. I suppose it's all relative.

We're still being asked why the hell we came back, though. These cold inured Canadians just can't imagine why we'd have left the supposed paradise of Aussieland. I should be facetious and say that it's because Doctor Who comes out a week later back home. That'd fix it.